Wednesday unexpectedly fell upon me and reminded me that it was walking day. As lately my walks have been rather dull, with nothing special to show and obviously through the same places I decided that today I would tell you about another walk I did three months ago in the small resort of Sozopol, on the Black Sea, in Bulgaria.
To put the places on the map I have to make a short introduction and provide some information about the part of Eastern Europe where this walk takes place. And where my life travels, slowly, slowly, towards the known and unavoidable end!
A more general map of Europe, to see the position of these two countries, Bulgaria and Romania.
A detail with Romania and Bulgaria. I consider myself lucky that I live in the south of Romania and get to the Black Sea resorts of Bulgaria more easily. Romania also has part of the Black Sea coast and plenty of resorts but I prefer the Bulgarian part now.
The distance as the crow flies is 258 km (161 miles). Unfortunately, there is no such motorway, so the driving distance is 348 km, which takes more than five hours.
I hope these little hints and maps will help make it easier to understand my destination this end of the spring, where I did the walk I'm going to tell about now.
I've been looking forward to this summer so much that I went to the sea even before it started. The very nice and warm weather also contributed to this decision which turned out to be not very inspired.
Here another characteristic of most people comes into play. We, humans, are always unhappy. If it's crowded in a place we go on holiday we say it's not good, it would have been better if it wasn't, and if it's not crowded, as it was in my case, I still didn't like it because something I was used to on holiday was missing. Lots of people...
As I said, good weather when we arrived in Sozopol. I had been to Sozopol several times, five or six times, and every time I got there, after five tiring hours of driving, I would go for a walk through the narrow, sloping streets of the old town.
The old town is located on a small peninsula, with narrow, sloping streets that eventually lead to the sea. The photo is taken from the balcony of the hotel room and in the distance, you can see the peninsula and the old town!
A night view from the same place.
But let's get back to the first day's walk. At the small intersection where the old town begins we had our first (unpleasant) surprise when we noticed that the windows of a sandwich shop we loved had their shutters closed. I immediately realized that, in fact, the tourist season had not yet started and that explains the lack of tourists.
Tourists weren't completely missing, there were a few others, lost like us, on the deserted streets around.
The old town center is not so old because old houses have been restored and even modified to accommodate shops, bakeries, and banks. These streets are filled with people in season, now deserted. It's not a place I like very much, and because of those many shops...
For the first time, I walked these streets without being in a crowd of people. This is the payoff of this journey made too soon. The old town has turned into a very pleasant place to walk and relax.
However, I didn't like these central streets the most. I like the places where there are still the hundred-year-old houses, the wooden houses typical of this place. Fortunately, there are still some left. However, I didn't like these central streets the most. I like the places where there are still the hundred-year-old houses, the wooden houses typical of this place.
Sozopol is not a museum, it is a small town where people live even in the old center. Because of this many have renovated and modified the old stone and wooden houses into modern brick and concrete houses. We can't blame people for wanting more modern living conditions, even if this means losing traces of the past.
In fact, this gives charm to the old center. This amalgam of old houses, new houses, and even ancient tombs, like this one, next to people's houses and next to the alley we walk along.
Very old, thousands of years these ruins of the city of Apollonia. So-called Sozopol by the Greek colonists. It was a settlement of the ancient Greek colonists dedicated to the god Apollo...
That's how this ride was. Narrow streets, barely enough room for a car to pass. Houses very close together, older houses and houses being renovated. All these streets, longer or shorter, reach the sea. We walked randomly and arrived at the harbor. A small port. A small town can only have a small port...
On the other side of the harbor is a no-entry zone. There are some strange buildings. I found out that there was once a Russian headquarters and a military port there. When Bulgaria joined the European Union the Russians were forced to leave but probably secret equipment remained and that's why access is forbidden.
The boats are very photogenic and I took a lot of photos during that ride. I put a few to illustrate.
That's how I took my first walk through Sozopol, on the sly, out of curiosity to see changes. Changes that I was expecting because I hadn't visited the place for five years.
Of course, things have changed, but most of all I have changed. I no longer feel that thrill of pleasure I had on my first trips here...
The causes can be multiple. Seeing the city before the season started was like seeing a very beautiful but not very young woman before she got dressed up. I saw a different face, with things I liked and things I didn't. But I think it's only natural that it should happen that way. I think the same can happen with any repeated trip, anywhere.
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